MRT - public transportation system, Jakarta Style! :(

Most Asian countries these days have some sort of Mass Transportation system, Hong Kong the very efficient subway, Shanghai - the excellent monorail, Bangkok - the MRT subway and the BTS overhead railway...

Jakarta has long had a traffic problem, so the Indonesian solution.......

Busway!

What is a busway i hear you ask?? Well subways and monorails etc are too expensive for Indonesia so we get the busway.

Yes, yes, yes, but what is it?

Well, you cut a major arterial road in half, place some bluestone blocks in the way to keep cars out of it, and then run ordinary 'special' buses along this 'dedicated busway lane'. Mind you at crossroads and the start and end of each busway the said busses still have to fight with the traffic, oh yes and funding to actually provided buses to travel these routes is somewhat limited. But never mind, Sutiyuso, previous major/governer of jakarta allegedly made US$ 8,000,000 in bribes and kickbacks per busway line he signed off on, hence the possible reason he signed off on as many as possible before his term of office expired.

And what do you think the result of cutting roads in half is.....? Yep, worse traffic.

Here's some pics of the magnificent busway being built......

I didnt mean to capture a pic of the worker sleeping, but its perhaps rather appropriate of the Indonesian work ethic....

We have done bus lanes in the UK with similar problems at junctions. We don't put physical barriers up of course, they generate a lot of revenue fining people for using them when they shouldn't. It also means they are available for normal traffic off-peak when you don't need them anyway.

actually, those pics were taken in Pondok Indah, which is an area of a lot of new money, palatial OTT mansions etc, locals call them Rumah Pembantu, which translates as the maids house, cos most of these people are never there anyway, just the house staff.

Anyway - these people protested the most out of everyone against the busway being built in their area, so last week some important person sat down and negotiated with them, end result, cars can use the busway line in Pondok Indah during peak hours......

Leaving the rest of us confused as to the spending of the money to put in this lane in the first place....

muppets again, this time they reopened an old line in the city centre, but forgot to tell anyone, so first day they sold 12 tickets.

Govt launches new train to reduce Jakarta trafficJAKARTA (JP): The government launched a new train Friday as part of efforts to reduce traffic jams in the capital city.The new train, named the Ciliwung Blue Line, travels from Manggarai to Sudirman, Karet, Tanah Abang, Duri, Angke, Kampung Bandang, Kemayoran, Pasar Senen, Kramat, Jatinegara and back.The train fare is a flat rate of only Rp 3,500 (38 U.S. cents) during the promotional period before being set at a normal price of Rp 5,000."This is an idea Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo proposed to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a recent meeting to reduce heavy traffic jams in the city," City Secretary Ritola Tasmaya said after leading the train's official opening.Existing trains have only served routes from Jakarta to neighboring cities like Bogor, Tangerang and provincial cities such as Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta

Busway fire puts heat on operatorMustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, JakartaJakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo has ordered an investigation into the fire that destroyed a compressed natural gas-powered TransJakarta bus on Friday. "I asked the city police chief to thoroughly investigate the cause of the incident," the governor said at City Hall. According to the Jakarta Police's Traffic Management Center, the bus caught fire around 8:30 a.m. near the Tugu Tani (Farmer's Monument) in Central Jakarta. No injuries were reported in the incident. Officials initially said the fire started because of a short circuit in the bus engine. The bus, owned by PT Trans Batavia, was traveling on Corridor 2 of the busway system from Harmoni in Central Jakarta to Pulo Gadung in East Jakarta, while carrying dozens of passengers. Trans Batavia provides 55 buses fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG) to serve the corridor. Passengers later reported smelling gas inside the bus in Harmoni, Detik.com reported. They said the odor disappeared, but returned when they arrived at the traffic lights near the monument, where the fire started. Quoting the police's preliminary investigation, Fauzi said the fire was likely started by a short circuit in the bus' dashboard, "not a CNG leak as previously alleged". "So, I call on residents to ignore this. They should not panic over the incident," he said. Busway operator TransJakarta's head of operations, Rene Nunumete, also said a short circuit was the cause of the blaze. Fauzi said he ordered TransJakarta and the city transportation agency to perform safety checks on all the busway vehicles. "I want them to obtain a certificate for each of the busway buses that guarantees the buses are safe and roadworthy." He said TransJakarta and the transportation agency would have to cooperate with a surveyor agency, like state-owned PT Sucofindo, to obtain the certificates. "In the meantime, the busway will remain operational to maintain public services," he said. A similar incident occurred last May, involving a CNG-fueled TransJakarta bus being repaired at a busway pool in Pulo Gadung. That incident left four people with serious injuries. Nurmansjah Lubis, the secretary of City Council Commission B for economic affairs, blamed the poor management of TransJakarta for the fire. "This incident proves that TransJakarta is careless when it comes to safety. It does not carry out maximum supervision," he said. "TransJakarta could have avoided this incident if it carried out periodic safety checks," he said.

Mustaqim Adamrah , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 03/12/2008 11:55 AM | City
Governor Fauzi Bowo said Tuesday the capital would start a Rp 40 trillion (US$4.2 billion) project constructing elevated roads across all municipalities in Jakarta next year. Six toll roads are included in the project.
"We must understand that horizontal road expansion is no longer a favorable solution in easing traffic jams," he said at City Hall.
"Therefore, we have no other choice except to build more elevated roads."
He said elevated toll roads were also part of a plan to generate revenue for the city.
"We could use more revenue from toll roads to fund the development of other roads, as well as the development of an MRT, the monorail and the busway," said Fauzi.
The MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) is a rail system Jakarta has been planning since 1984. Plans to begin construction this year have again been delayed until 2010.
He said, however, more research was required to measure the impacts of the construction, such as congestion.
"Both the central government and the city administration agree road expansion on ground level will not solve transportation issues in the city," he said.
"But we can think of another way to solve traffic problems. We have to carefully decide the locations of the toll road exits and entrances in the design."
Wrong locations of toll road exits and entrances, Fauzi said, would create worse traffic jams.
He also said the money needed to fund the elevated roads project would come from the administration, the capital market, the money market and loan syndicates.
Fauzi said the city would start the toll road construction in North Jakarta because MRT construction was planned for the same time in the south.
The Rp 8.3 trillion ($913 million) MRT project will stretch 14.3 kilometers from Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, to Dukuh Atas, Central Jakarta and is expected to be finished in 2014.
In addition, Fauzi said the design would also calculate increased air pollution resulting from road expansions that consequently encourage more people to use vehicles. The six planned toll roads

Desy Nurhayati, , The Jakarta Post, , Jakarta | Tue, 02/24/2009 12:59 PM | Headlines
Traffic on several streets along the route of the newly launched Transjakarta busway Corridor 8 were more congested than usual Monday, the first working day since the route was launched Saturday.
Long queues formed along Jl. Pondok Indah and Jl. Kebayoran Lama in South Jakarta and Jl. Panjang in West Jakarta during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Even before the new route was up and running, the streets were notorious for their abysmal peak-hour overcrowding.
Chief Brig. Marsono of the Jakarta Police's Traffic Management Center (TMC) said traffic was particularly worse on streets where there were no exclusive lanes for the Transjakarta buses.
"The traffic got more crowded during peak hour, especially on Jl. Pondok Indah, where the buses and other vehicles occupied the same lanes, without a proper separator," he told The Jakarta Post.
"It's more crowded than usual today, especially on narrow streets. The situation gets even worse each time a vehicle makes a U-turn."
He added the heavy congestion was because private vehicles were no longer able to use the Corridor 8 busway lanes as they did before the route was put into operation.
However, private vehicles were still seen occupying the exclusive Transjakarta lanes to avoid being stuck in the regular lanes.
Marsono said the police had deployed more officers to congested spots to help ease the traffic.
The TMC also reported that jams around the Lebak Bulus area took longer to clear, even after the morning rush hour peak at 10 a.m.
Motorists who normally pass through the same route as the new bus, particularly Jl. Pondok Indah and Jl. Arteri Permata Hijau, were stuck even after taking alternative routes.
Retta, a resident of Bumi Serpong Damai in Tangerang, said it took her 20 minutes longer than usual to drive to her office in Senayan, Central Jakarta.
"I usually arrive at the office at around 8 or 8:05 a.m., but today I got there at 8:20," she told the Post.
"It was already crowded when I entered Pondok Indah, so I took another road to avoid being on the same route as the bus. But still, I got stuck there, until I entered the next street, Jl. Radio Dalam."
Jakarta Deputy Governor Prijanto called on motorists not to use the Transjakarta lanes.
He admitted the Jakarta administration had yet to succeed in encouraging more private motorists to switch to commuting by bus.
"There are still unfinished problems, including the long headway for buses and limited supporting facilities, such as parking lots for Transjakarta bus passengers," he said.
Prijanto added the adminis-tration planned to provide more parking lots around Transjakarta bus terminals.
Corridor 8 was previously intended to connect 24 bus shelters along a 29-kilometer route from Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to Harmoni in Central Jakarta. Due to the limited availability of buses, with only 25 buses available, the corridor only connects 17 shelters.Traffic along new Transjakarta route getting worse: TMC | The Jakarta Post

Ah! London bus lanes.
Haverstock Hill in Hampstead and the Holloway Road down through Islington !

During my infrequent 3 day visits to London I used to drive into the city every day and sit f*kin fuming in the traffic and watch the shiny government limos zooming down the bus lanes carrying MPs to the Houses of Parliament every morning !

Triwik Kurniasari , THE JAKARTA POST , JAKARTA | Fri, 04/03/2009 9:14 AM | City
The construction of the first ever mass rapid transit (MRT) project will face some big challenges, especially with the building of tunnels, said PT MRT Jakarta (MRTJ).
Corporate director of MRTJ, Eddi Santosa, said his office was currently assessing the condition of the soil and buildings where the future MRT lanes would be built.
“We need to conduct this research to ensure the project’s safety,” said Eddi.
“The construction method used to build the tunnel, for example, will affect the duration of the project.”
The tunnel also has to be able to withstand pressure.
“There might be a high-rise building located above the tunnel that has to be removed to ease the pressure on the tunnel,” said Eddi.
The company wants to be prepared for any situation.
“Land subsidence, earthquakes, fires and floodings also have to be taken into consideration before starting the project,” he said.
Land subsidence is an ongoing issue in city because of the high pressure from high-rise buildings and massive ground water exploitation.
Firdaus Ali, an environmental expert at the University of Indonesia, earlier reported the city’s land was sinking 10 centimeters a year on average.
Beside tunneling, Eddi said, MRTJ also faces challenges planning sharp bends on Jl. TB Simatupang and Jl. Fatmawati, both in South Jakarta.
“The bend is sharp because there is also a toll road, so the lane will have to be curved there,” he said.
The Japanese government - through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) - is funding the MRT project with a 120 billion yen (US$1.2 billion) loan. Acting as the MRT project adviser, JICA will also evaluate the project’s cost to make sure the funds are sufficient.
JICA said it would fund 85 percent of the project, with the state and city financing the rest.
On Tuesday, the central government secured a second loan package from the Japanese government worth 48.15 billion yen.
On March 25, Governor Fauzi Bowo signed an agreement with the government for a 758 million yen grant, which was part of the 1.87 billion yen loan from JICA.
Fauzi said 567 million yen of the grant would be spent on management consulting services, while the rest would be transferred to MRTJ as a capital injection for more consulting services.
The Transportation Ministry is due to start working on the basic engineering design in April this year and is expected to complete the design in early 2010.
The procurement process will most likely start in a couple of months and finish at the end of 2010, with the construction of the actual MRT planned for as early as 2011.
The 14.5-kilometer MRT route - linking Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to Dukuh Atas in Central Jakarta — should be up and running early 2016.
The route will start from Lebak Bulus and pass through Jl. Fatmawati, Jl. Cipete Raya, Jl. Haji Nawi, Blok M, Jl. Sisingamangaraja, Senayan, Istora and Bendungan Hilir, and end at Dukuh Atas.
About 10.5 kilometers of the route will be overground, while the rest will be underground.
The MRT is expected to carry up to 340,000 passengers per day and take 28 minutes from start to finish. The MRT will connect with other transportation services such as TransJakarta bus.
“If the MRT is ready, Transjakarta bus serving Blok M – Dukuh Atas can stop running because the MRT will offer faster commuting times,” said Eddi.

Sat, 06/20/2009 12:12 PM | Reader's Forum
This is a comment on an article titled "Yes, we don't provide good public transit," (The Jakarta Post, June 17).
Basically, they either need to sort out the busway pronto or else forget the whole thing. At present, it is utterly pathetic in pretty much every respect other than the air-conditioning.
There are still more Metro minis and kopajas (medium-size buses) roaming around and the logic of having an entire lane of most major roads in a severely congested city solely for the use of one kind of bus, which is infrequent and stops altogether at 10 p.m., is highly questionable. Does life itself stop at 10 p.m.?
The busway is generally still the slowest way of getting from one place to another, and thus cannot be considered a success whatsoever. There is little information available; the ridiculous fare means that there are huge queues whilst people search for a Rp 500 coin or are given change from a 5,000 note; and some mysterious buses known as "express" don't even stop at Harmoni.
It is usually after Harmoni has been bypassed that busway staff decide to let passengers know they are on an "express". Having Pulo Gadung as a major stop is a big mistake, as anyone who has been there will tell you is it utter mayhem and buses end up queuing for 10 or 20 minutes before bumping along pot-hole-ridden bus lanes.
The same goes for Blok M, which is an utter maze. By the time you've found your way into the market, found the busway counter, queued up, found your way up onto the platform, queued up again, got on the bus, waited for it to slowly creep out onto the road, you could have walked or taken a bajaj to where you wanted to be. Needless to say, tourists would be well-advised to completely avoid the busway, as it is currently a useless and confusing operation of little or no merit.
For anyone in support of such a shabbily run operation, just go along to Senen and have a look at the continual chaos, as people queue up the narrow, awkward steps waiting and waiting for a bus to finally arrive. It's not uncommon to have a queue of 300 or more, which is unacceptable.
Another major flaw across the entire network is that it takes ages to actually get down onto the busway platform - far quicker and cheaper to take a different bus. The platforms are also dangerous, with huge gaps in the panels and shoddily assembled structures. It should be regarded by those in charge of it as a total embarrassment and waste of time.
Get it sorted out, Transjakarta, or give the cars back their much-needed lane!
Bobby Johnson
Jakarta

Private companies might be excluded altogether from busway operations under possible changes now being considered by the city administration.

Sutanto Suhodo, the governor’s assistant for industry, trade and transportation affairs, said on Wednesday that there had been many problems with the present arrangement, which involves the city’s own TransJakarta Busway Management Body (BLU) working in tandem with four private operators.

The alternative being considered is to create a wholly state-owned enterprise that would both manage and operate the entire system.

The city owns only part of the fleet of buses, currently 426-strong and growing, while the four private operators — each actually consortiums of several companies — own the rest.

“We are still discussing it at the moment,” Sutanto said.

“We are thinking about the policy because there have been many problems in the TransJakarta operation being run by the private operators.”

The help with the city’s review, business consultancy firm Ernst & Young has been hired to provide advice.

“In the future, TransJakarta could be fully managed by the city administration,” Sutanto said.

“No operator involvement, either in the management or in the fleet procurement.”

Milatia Kusuma Mukmin, the director of the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy, told the city’s official news portal, BeritaJakarta.com, that the possible takeover of the entire fleet by the city administration “cannot guarantee better busway management.”

Nurmansjah Lubis, the secretary of City Council’s Commission B, which covers transportation issues, however, said that the possible change in management arrangements would provide better service to the public.

He said the idea of a single operator would result in both better service and better business orientation, citing state-owned railway operator, PT Kereta Api, as a good example of this because it had managed to maintain a quality public service while also running an efficient business.

The directors would be more independent, Nurmansjah said, and would need to be more creative and innovative as they would be encouraged to increase the quality of the management of the busway.

The Jakarta city administration is planning to erect fences along some sections of the TransJakarta bus lanes to keep private vehicles out of the dedicated lanes, Deputy Governor Prijanto said on Tuesday.

Prijanto said the administration wanted the bus lanes to be similar to railway routes, with fixed schedules and free of traffic.

“Busway lanes need to be fenced so that the buses can run smoothly and fast without any disturbance,” he said.

However, he declined to say when the building of the fences might begin.

Earlier, city authorities erected automatic gates on several sections of busway lanes, but they have not succeeded in keeping private motorists out of the lanes.

Prijanto cited Jalan Daan Mogot in West Jakarta as one of the routes that must be fenced.

“The busway Corridor III [linking Kalideres in West Jakarta to Harmoni in Central Jakarta] is prone to accidents as many private vehicles get into the busway,” he said.

There was no data on busway accidents since they were constructed in 2004. However, the official Web site of the Jakarta Police’s Traffic Directorate says one woman was killed by a bus in June when she tried to cross the lane. It also says five people were killed in busway lanes in May, while dozens were injured.

Most of the victims were motorcycle riders.

Prijanto said many pedestrians also jaywalk along the busway lanes, putting their lives in danger.

“Not all the routes will be fenced, only the ones prone to accidents, and Daan Mogot will be a priority,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that the city administration had not allocated any funds to the project.

Patterned after the TransMillenio busway system in Bogota, Colombia, the TransJakarta busway lanes were introduced by former Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso in January 2004 as part of efforts to ease crippling traffic jams in the capital.

Five years later, however, most transportation experts suggest that the TransJakarta busway system, which currently includes seven corridors crisscrossing the city, has failed to live up to its hype. Severe traffic jams continue to plague the city during the morning and evening rush hours.